This review contains full spoilers for The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power season 2, episode 7.
Much like The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’s first-season standout, "Udûn," episode 7 of season 2 demonstrates that the show is at its absolute best when it focuses on where the action is. This episode doesn’t have as many of the dramatic twists of fortune that made "Udûn” so extraordinary, but it’s packed with spectacular battles and character-driven tragedy that won’t fully be paid off until the season finale next week. (Also in its favor: It doesn’t alternate between unrelated plots scattered across Middle-earth!)
Celebrimbor (Charles Edwards) remains locked in an illusion, believing all is peaceful in his city while he crafts the nine rings for mortal men in a solitude that he actually thanks Sauron (Charlie Vickers) for. Celebrimbor breaks free for just a moment, seeing his filthy and bloody reflection and noticing that his legendary hammer is missing a stone. But Sauron is a master of gaslighting, blaming Celebrimbor for being forgetful while trying to get him back on track.
The difference between the world Celebrimbor is living in and the real Eregion is shown in a powerfully abrupt transition between the forge and the city under siege, with the orc assault causing so much smoke it nearly blots out the sun. Adar’s (Sam Hazeldine) artillery must be either wildly potent or the mountain near Eregion is extremely precarious, but either way it allows him to cause a targeted avalanche that dams the river to prepare for a ground attack.
It turns out to be hard to both run a city and keep the greatest of all elven smiths locked in his own mind, which means Celebrimbor starts picking up clues and doing experiments to prove that something is very wrong. He finally breaks from his reverie to see the nightmare he’s truly living, his cozy and bright workshop transformed into a smoldering ruin and one of the beautiful dogs he saw in Sauron’s illusion last episode now whimpering over a fallen elf. The sound design is especially robust, with the thundering cracks of artillery hitting the city.
The scenes between Sauron and Celebrimbor have been the highlight of this season and this climax doesn’t disappoint, with Sauron’s impassive demeanor falling as he yells at Celebrimbor to finish the nine. It turns out Celebrimbor hasn’t even been working with mithril but Sauron’s own black blood. It’s a neat touch that helps explain the rings’ different effects on their wielders. Sauron merely designed the three, touched the seven and ensured the nine were made from a part of himself – his control deepens with every step.
Breaking free of the mindscape barely helps Celebrimbor, though. He sounds insane, rambling about a mouse and a missing gem when he begs Mirdania (Amelia Kenworthy) to believe him while trying to use his knowledge of the city he built to protect it from the orc incursion. Sauron has dug in too deep, using his illusions to hide the wound Celebrimbor said would vindicate him. Vickers is so good at selling Sauron’s callousness and willingness to simply abandon something that no longer suits him. Earlier this episode he tenderly promises Mirdania some reward for everything she’s done to help him, but then he sends her tumbling off the city walls with just a tiny gesture to further discredit Celebrimbor (who he’s able to drag away to continue the project). It’s a nice callback to the similar scene in the first episode of the season where he so quickly abandons the man who thought he was helping to put him on a better path.
In Khazad-dûm, Durin III (Peter Mullan) continues to be consumed by greed, his throne room now littered with gold. Fortunately his advisor Narvi (Kevin Eldon) refuses the order to remove Disa (Sophia Nomvete) and Durin IV (Peter Mullan) to restart mithril mining. Narvi was at the celebration of the creation of the seven rings for the dwarven lords in Eregion, and is understandably appalled that his king only sees great potential for war profiteering when he learns what’s happening there.
News of Eregion comes from Elrond (Robert Aramayo), whose meddling last season has gotten him exiled from all dwarven lands. It’s so sweet to see Durin IV’s joy at reuniting with his old friend – who he peppers with some very creative insults – but Elrond continues to take more from their relationship than he gives. Durin IV is preparing to depose his father, so he can use all the support he can get right now. But Elrond has other priorities: He’s in desperate need of an army to help even the odds in Eregion.
The elves ride in to meet Adar’s forces, with the visuals mimicking the stark divide between dark and light seen in the first moments of Peter Jackson’s The Fellowship of the Ring. Even though Galadriel (Morfydd Clark) made Elrond promise that he would let her die if it meant defeating Sauron, he stops his charge when he sees that Adar has her captive.
The bargaining between Adar and the elves continues to be frustrating given how shortsighted everyone is being. Adar’s not wrong that Eregion has fallen into shadow and it’s too late to save Celebrimbor from Sauron’s grasp, but Elrond is so confident that he can beat Adar with Durin III’s help that he won’t offer any type of truce. Elrond throws Adar’s name back at him, questioning his willingness to sacrifice his children for vengeance, which is a good play from the diplomat given Adar’s already having deserter problems. With everyone agreeing to meet on the battlefield, Elrond does some obvious sleight of hand and kisses Galadriel to give her a means of escape. It’s pretty clear that Galadriel has no real interest in this beyond the practical, but the triumphant music and the look Elrond gives her makes it seem like he might actually want the moment to mean something more.
Durin gives a motivating speech with a bit of extra backstory, explaining that Sauron became such a masterful smith by stealing secrets from the dwarves’ ancestors. It’s an impressive sequence: The rousing oratory on the virtues of dwarven loyalty echoes through the halls of Khazad-dûm, which are seen in all their glory. The crowd shots even reveal some of the bearded dwarven women Gimli mentioned in The Two Towers, whose role on The Rings of Power hasn’t been all that prominent. But the triumphant march is interrupted by news that Durin III has taken digging matters into his own hands, cutting through Narvi’s men with the same terrible strength he demonstrated when his son tried to pry the ring off him. The coup will have to come before the rescue.
All of the episode’s speeches and negotiations just add to the drama surrounding the siege that runs throughout the episode. It’s a true visual spectacle, chaotic but filled with beautiful fight coordination. There are whirling blades, flurries of arrows, and an impressive arsenal of siege weaponry. Even when night falls, it’s never too dark thanks to the constant flames.
There are numerous highlights, like the archer Rían (Selina Lo) getting shot full of arrows before making one last shot to ignite a barrel of pitch that sends a contingent of orcs flying, leaving an opening for Elrond to rush in and start hacking off limbs. Her turning the tide makes Adar desperate enough to send in the troll, which kills indiscriminately, stomping elves and orcs alike and using Adar’s own forces as a shield. The CGI’s a bit too obvious in Arondir’s fight with the troll, which resembles the battle in Mordor in The Fellowship of the Ring. But it still works – particularly the monster’s dying laughter.
Elrond proves himself to be a formidable warrior while the elven cavalry struggles to cross the muddy mess Adar has made of the river, avenging his horse’s death by flinging an orc into the wall. Elrond’s words and deeds continue to fray the orcs’ already terrible morale, as Adar’s lieutenant urges him to sound a retreat and questions his lord father’s love. Unfortunately, Adar is so consumed by his hatred he’d rather see all his children die than let them be enslaved by Sauron.
These are a gentler breed of orcs than the cannibals shown in the Two Towers, somberly mourning their dead with funeral pyres and prayers from Adar. Arondir (Ismael Cruz Córdova) arrives just when Galadriel needs help escaping, but wants to stay to try to kill Adar rather than joining her in Eregion. Her line that “there is a dearth of elven heroes this night. It would be a pity to lose another” is meant to be inspiring, but it sounds too much like The Princess Bride’s “There's a shortage of perfect breasts in this world. It would be a pity to damage yours” for me to take it seriously.
Locked to his desk, Celebrimbor continues to be tormented by Sauron, who blames the elven smith for his own suffering while trying to stir up sympathy for himself with a tale of how he was tortured by the evil god Morgoth. To his credit, Celebrimbor just rolls his eyes at Sauron’s justifications, trying to do whatever he can to get out of the predicament. The rings can’t be simply destroyed in the forge and he can’t break his shackles, but he echoes Sauron’s monologue about testing his will against Morgoth’s in a supreme act of will of his own: cutting off his own thumb.
That courage is still barely enough, though, since he almost gets arrested and dragged back to the tower again by Eregion troops who now consider Sauron the city’s true lord. Galadriel comes to the rescue and their conversation is beautiful and tragic, with both confronting the way their own ambitions blinded them to Sauron’s manipulations. Celebrimbor pledges to make a final sacrifice and go down with his city to buy Galadriel some time to get the nine rings to safety. He gives a moving monologue about the difference between light and strength, offering a bit of absolution to them both. No one is strong enough to stand against Sauron, but goodness can and will eventually prevail.
The dawn arrives but Durin doesn’t, a demoralizing change of fortune that practically breaks Elrond. It’s a brutal reversal of the turning of the tide in The Two Towers, with the few surviving elves quickly falling to Adar’s final push. With Adar finally nabbing the ring he spilled so much blood to get, he finally has everything he needs to kill Sauron. Unfortunately, Rings of Power isn’t at liberty to mimic his righteous concentration: Big things are in store for the finale, but that episode will also have to resolve the weaker ongoing plots in Numenor and Rhun, which are blessedly absent this week. But if Eragion had to fall, at least its destruction gave us one last beautiful thing in this season’s finest episode.
